All British eyes by now were focussed on Dunkirk. The great evacuation was reaching its peak. Completely contrary to expectations 30 to 40 thousand troops a day were being taken off. However, the waiting men, standing in long queues on the beaches, were having a very trying time. There can be few worse experiences than standing in disciplined lines for hours on end while being bombed.
Unhappily, whilst the RAF was flying hundreds of missions – in total 2,739 fighter sorties were flown over Dunkirk – their impact was little felt by the troops on the beaches. Dowding’s determination not to send more fighters to France, coupled with the fact that Dunkirk was at the maximum range for single-engine fighters, meant that, despite the hard work and bravery of the pilots, the patrols were relatively ineffective. However, the evacuation was able to transport just under 340,000 troops back to Britain. Just over 68,000 were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner by ground forces during the evacuation from France.
Still, the RAF pilots who were shot down over the beaches didn’t have much of an experience either. Alan Deere, whose Spitfire had taken a burst of enemy fire in its engine, managed to put his aircraft down in shallow water. He managed to get out and, eventually, to get to the beach. When he finally got on a craft, he was greeted by the Major in charge, with the remark ‘for all the good you’ve done you really needn’t have come’. There it was. In the end, most of them got away and that’s what counted.
The events of May and early June impacted heavily on Fighter Command’s strength with the loss of around 500 of their aircraft. The losses were such that Dowding told the War Cabinet on 2nd June that he could not guarantee air superiority for more that 48 hours.
